Martin Luther King Jnr.
(Image: Unknown photographer)April 7, 2008 – When US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated on 4 April 1968, Nelson Mandela was ending the third year of his life sentence for sabotage.
King’s shooting on the balcony in a hotel in Memphis Tennessee at the age of 39, sent shock waves around the world. To the news-deprived political prisoners on Robben Island, the information had to come more slowly, through the network of common law prisoners.
In later years Mr Mandela would often recall King’s inspirational example and said that his dream of equality was also the dream of South Africans. When he stood to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, nearly 30 years after Martin Luther King Jr had received his, Mr Mandela recalled the American’s words when he said:
“Let the strivings of us all prove Martin Luther King Jr to have been correct, when he said that humanity can no longer be tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war.”
As the world remembers his life and contribution to the struggle for racial equality, 40 years after his death, it reminds us that Martin Luther King’s dream has not yet been fully realised. His dream of a truly equal and non-racial America as articulated in his famous 1963 “I have a dream” has still some way to go”.
Similarly, South Africa is still on the journey towards the complete realisation of our own dream. Our dream started centuries ago for true non-racialism and democracy was not magically achieved the day Mr. Mandela walked out of prison on 11 February 1990, or on the day he was inaugurated as President of South Africa on 10 May 1994. The realisation of our dream involves all of us and like Martin Luther King Jr’s dream, it still has a long road to travel. As Mr Mandela has said:
“The growth, consolidation and sustained health of our democracy are the responsibilities not only of leaders, but also of each and every citizen.”